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Verizon Wireless will start throttling video streams to resolutions as low as 480p on smartphones this week. Most data plans will get 720p video on smartphones, but customers won't have any option to completely un-throttle video.

1080p will be the highest resolution provided on tablets, effectively ruling out 4K video on Verizon's mobile network. Anything identified as a video will not be given more than 10Mbps worth of bandwidth. This limit will affect mobile hotspot usage as well.

Verizon started selling unlimited smartphone data plans in February of this year, and the carrier said at the time that it would deliver video to customers at the same resolution used by streaming video companies. "We deliver whatever the content provider gives us. We don't manipulate the data," Verizon told Ars in February.

That changes beginning on Wednesday, both for existing customers and new ones. The changes were detailed today in an announcement of new unlimited data plans.

Starting August 23, Verizon's cheapest single-line unlimited smartphone data plan will cost $75 a month, which is $5 less than it cost before. The plan will include only "DVD-quality streaming" of 480p on phones and 720p on tablets. (Tablet data service is priced as an add-on to smartphone plans and costs $20 a month.)

Further Reading

Customers who buy a new unlimited data plan can get higher-quality video for an extra $10 per month. The higher video quality of 720p on phones and 1080p on tablets will be available on Verizon's "Beyond Unlimited" plan, which is $85 a month for a smartphone connection and another $20 for a tablet. Verizon says that with these resolutions, video quality should be about the same on the larger screens of tablets as it is on the smaller screens of phones.

If you're already a Verizon customer, your video resolution will be reduced to 720p on phones and 1080p on tablets whether you have a limited or unlimited data plan. Customers who purchase any Verizon limited plan in the future will see the same restrictions.

For postpaid customers, the 480p limit thus applies only to people on the new $75 unlimited plan. These customers get the benefit of avoiding overage charges and strict monthly caps, but they won't get the same video quality as customers who either have a limited data plan or splurge for the "Beyond Unlimited" plan. The 480p limit also applies to prepaid plans.

Verizon apparently won't be converting videos to lower resolutions itself. Instead, it will set a bandwidth limit that video applications will have to adjust to. "We manage HD video throughput by setting speeds at no more than 10Mbps, which provides HD video at up to 1080p video," Verizon told Ars. The Mbps will presumably be lower than that in cases where Verizon limits video to 480p or 720p.

The 1080p limit will apply when customers use their mobile devices as hotspots, Verizon said. That means you won't be able to stream 4K video on a laptop by tethering the laptop to a Verizon-connected smartphone, for example.

"More than 96 percent of customers have not used 4K video," Verizon also told us.

Hotspot speed limits

The $75 plan's mobile hotspot service will top out at only 600kbps. The Beyond Unlimited plan will offer 15GB of 4G LTE hotspot speeds per month and reduce tethering speeds to 600kbps after that.

Customers who bought unlimited data earlier this year at the previous price of $80 per month will get the same video quality and high-speed tethering amounts as the Beyond Unlimited plan.

There is good news for businesses that want to equip employees with unlimited data. Previously, customers could only get up to 10 lines of unlimited data on Verizon. But Verizon will now let businesses buy unlimited data plans for as many employees as they want.

Here's a pricing chart from Verizon's announcement for the new plans available on Wednesday:

Verizon

While Verizon's "unlimited" plans don't have overage fees for using too much data, customers who use more than 22GB a month may have their speeds reduced below other customers in areas with network congestion.

Preventing congestion

The video quality changes are apparently aimed at reducing or preventing congestion in Verizon's network. "We're doing this to ensure all customers have a great experience on our network since there is no visible difference in quality on a smartphone or tablet when video is shown at higher resolutions than 720p on phones and 1080p on tablets," the Verizon announcement today said.

"We're really managing our network in a way to be able to expand unlimited data to more people," Verizon marketing executive Angie Klein told Ars yesterday.

Testing firm OpenSignal recently found that Verizon's "average LTE download test fell 2Mbps to 14.9 Mbps" in the months after its launch of unlimited data. T-Mobile CEO John Legere also claimed that the Verizon and AT&T networks "seem to be choking after we forced them to go unlimited." (T-Mobile also throttles video on unlimited plans by default but lets customers activate HD video by paying extra.)

RootMetrics, another testing firm, has consistently found that Verizon's network offers better overall reliability and speed than its competitors. "Our network has never been stronger," Klein said. "RootMetrics confirmed it again last month."

Verizon tested video throttling last month

Verizon signaled that it might start throttling video streams by default last month when it conducted a temporary test of a video optimization system that capped video speeds at 10Mbps. (Some YouTube users said they were able to bypass the limits by using a VPN service.) Advocacy group Free Press alleged that Verizon violated net neutrality rules by throttling video applications on its mobile network, but Verizon denied breaking any rules.

Last month, Verizon said:

Current net neutrality rules clearly state that providers may employ reasonable network management practices to ensure that their networks and services run efficiently and work well for their customers... Video optimization is a non-discriminatory network management practice designed to ensure a high quality customer experience for all customers accessing the shared resources of our wireless network.

The FCC allowed similar video throttling systems to continue even under former Chairman Tom Wheeler, who instituted the net neutrality rules in 2015. The FCC's current chairman, Ajit Pai, has proposed eliminating the rules.

177 Reader Comments

I had Verizon for years and they have the best service, but the bill was so high and every time you blinked you lost some kind of service or your bill went up. I went over to Project Fi and one point they made a billing mistake, told me about it and then fixed it in my favor.

(They undercharged for data used, so instead of raising my bill the next month they raised my data limit so I wouldn't be accountable for their error.)

This isn't unexpected. It was more surprising that when Verizon launched unlimited, they didn't limit video streaming. After all, both Sprint and T-Mobile launched with lower quality video.

I wonder if this is related to the legal & FCC scrutiny Verizon has been under. It seems as if Verizon launched unlimited without a full review of what they could do, legally. Which they did - they lost so many customers to t-mobile they panicked.

I don't think this will really affect most customers, but for people who rely on Verizon as their only internet connection, it's definitely annoying.

I dunno. I feel like this is one of those slippery slope moves more than anything. On my phone, more than 480p is wasted. More than 720p is pointless. If you're using it for home internet, I dunno. That blows. But I think the really concerning thing about moves like this is the precedent it sets. How long before they do this to everything that can possibly be... Whatever the word for making something lower resolution is. De-resolved? Or they decide you're using too much data and cut you off. I'd be less worried except they keep trying to sell these moves as shit like "Beyond Unlimited" as if this is a new, better deal. Piss off. Just tell me when you're going to screw me.

I'd love to see this challenged on copyright grounds. Carriers are essentially man-in-the-middle'ing content creators and altering data that they've been asked to carry. Same with those ad-injecting wireless access points. They need to be forced to act as dumb pipes ASAP.

Well, they'll *always* be able to say that. Of course they don't manipulate the data because that would be too computationally intensive. So instead, they throttle, the streaming provider detects your terrible bandwidth, and responds with a lower quality file. And Verizon passes it on to you exactly how it was received.

This along with paying for tethering is bullshit (especially if the FCC and carriers are going to claim Cellular service can be a replacement for broadband). It's like they're a car dealership that can charge you extra if you decide to take the parkway with your car, but also can decide to limit what speed you drive.

You're paying for the damn services what does it matter what device is using that service and what quality of video you're watching on that service, if you're paying for that service?

These prices are insanely high. Where i live, prices used to be the same or even higher until the market was reformed by the govt. Am not a govt fan, but average prices now are about 12$ a month for 100 Gb packages.

Encryption prevents them from seeing the contents but not the total volume or the originating network: think of it like the post office saying they won't deliver more than 3 letters per day from Cleveland even if they don't know what's written inside.

I dunno. I feel like this is one of those slippery slope moves more than anything. On my phone, more than 480p is wasted. More than 720p is pointless. If you're using it for home internet, I dunno. That blows. But I think the really concerning thing about moves like this is the precedent it sets. How long before they do this to everything that can possibly be... Whatever the word for making something lower resolution is. De-resolved? Or they decide you're using too much data and cut you off. I'd be less worried except they keep trying to sell these moves as shit like "Beyond Unlimited" as if this is a new, better deal. Piss off. Just tell me when you're going to screw me.

I can definitely tell the difference between 480p and 720p easily on my 5.5 inch screen. The difference between 720p and 1080p I can see is primarily what seems to be a reduced amount of compression artifacts. Also, I primarily watch recorded game footage, which is usually filmed in 1920*1080, and UI etc is often a bit hard to read when downscaled through YT to 720p.

Encryption prevents them from seeing the contents but not the total volume or the originating network: think of it like the post office saying they won't deliver more than 3 letters per day from Cleveland even if they don't know what's written inside.

I'd guess they are primarily going for the IP-addresses. Most video streaming services probably don't change those very often

(b)Use of devices and applications. Licensees offering service on spectrum subject to this section shall not deny, limit, or restrict the ability of their customers to use the devices and applications of their choice on the licensee's C Block network, except:

(1) Insofar as such use would not be compliant with published technical standards reasonably necessary for the management or protection of the licensee's network, or

(2) As required to comply with statute or applicable government regulation.

There's not enough quotation-marks in the world to put around the shitty "unlimited" subscriptions you guys have in the USA.

For comparison to Finland: my wife has unlimited calls, SMS and 50Mbit/sec LTE with no data-caps and she pays 23.90e/month. For our home-internet we have 100Mbit LTE with no data-cap, and it costs 16.90e/month.

I don't have a problem with this. They are not restricting you from watching the video, just making sure that your task doesn't harm others from using the network. There is limited bandwidth available and it is physically impossible to have everyone streaming 1080p or 4k. So instead of having a few people abusing the network by running 4k streams, they are setting a standard as to what they can reasonably support.

Or you know, they could just take some of their massive profits and reinvest it in their networks to increase capacity.

But I find it telling that the maximum bandwidth of 10Mb/s is also the exact same number that Pai floated as the new definition for broadband. Probably just coincidence. :s

I don't understand why this is a problem. In Japan, the charges and availability of good mobile internet are so poor, that streaming a about 2 hours of online MUSIC every day would eat up most of the top tier data plans for smartphones. Japan simply doesnt understand such concepts as 'cloud saving" and "streaming media". It's finally come to Japan, but the old men that run Japanese media/tech companies have no time or interest in supporting it. That's why streaming in 360p vids on youtube is not really good on a mobile connection.

Is the USA better than Japan when it comes to such technology?

The "old men" are part of why Japan is falling behind in the technology market (and has been for a while). There's enough bandwidth in the air for Japan to offer high speed plans like in Europe, but they choose not to, in order to protect profits for a few companies.